The Passion and the Talmud

Terry Mattingly

The ancient rabbinic text is clear about the punishment for those who twisted sacred law and
misled the people of Israel.

Offenders would be stoned and then hung by their hands from two pieces of wood connected to form
a "T." The Talmud once included this example from the Sanhedrin.

"On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth," said the passage, which was censored in
the 16th century to evade the wrath of Christians. "The herald went out before him for 40 days
saying, 'Jesus goes forth to be stoned, because he has practiced magic, enticed and led astray
Israel. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and declare concerning him.' And they
found nothing in his favor."

If armies of Jewish and Christian scholars insist on arguing about Mel Gibson's explosive movie
"The Passion of the Christ," it would help if they were candid and started dealing with the hard
passages in Jewish texts as well as the Christian scriptures.